Outgoing New Jersey public school superintendents could cash out no more than $30,000 in unused sick and vacation days under a bill that on Monday garnered overwhelming approval in the state Assembly but has yet to make headway in the state's Senate.

"Some school superintendents have taken the mistaken view that money meant for the classroom would be better spent financing their personal diamond-encrusted, taxpayer-provided nest eggs," said Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union), chairman of the Assembly Education Committee and sponsor of the measure. "The residents of New Jersey are rightfully outraged at seeing their tax dollars used to provide departing superintendents with these offensive payouts."

Cryan's bill (A2975) was crafted in response to reports that Keansburg was poised to pay a $740,000 severance package to its outgoing superintendent next month.

The state Attorney General's Office has challenged that payment in court, calling it contrary to the public interest, and Keansburg's board of education has suspended payments under the deal pending a renegotiation. State education officials, meanwhile, have launched a review of every superintendent's contract in the state.

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